Your company may have a strong social media presence in the United States. But that means little in other countries. There are ways for you to become better-known overseas.

Companies spend a lot of money on advertising campaigns, social media launches, Adwords, URLs and other means of promotion to get found on Google or to get to the top of search engines. Yahoo, Bing and Youtube (as well as hundreds of others) offer advertising on their sites to get exposure for firms.

Online advertising expenditures will top $46 billion in the United States and $106 billion worldwide in 2013, and should reach $52 billion/$119 billion in 2014, according to emarketer.com. The website also predicts that in 2015, the United States will spend $57 billion, followed by China ($11.36 billion) and the United Kingdom ($10.43 billion).

With the United States spending about half the world’s online-advertising total, it’s easy to think that what works here will work overseas. But that’s not the case. There are some similarities and, more importantly, differences in online advertising abroad.

There is a big deal made about Yandex surpassing Bing. The Russian population of 142 million and operations in Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Belarus and Turkey are what propelled Yandex past Bing.

The United States spends less than half of the global online advertising budget, but has more than 70 percent of the searches. So you might believe that what is United States-friendly online may be globally friendly. But that’s false.

Google and Yahoo operate in other countries and other languages. It’s hard to believe that an American English blog post that gets to the top of Google USA would be anywhere near the top of Google China’s engine.

Here are tips to get noticed on search engines in other countries:

• Have separate websites that are in their languages.

• Customize your domain registration to each country you want to reach. For example, if your website address is www.xyz123.com in the United States, you’d want to own www.xyz123.ru for your Russian audience.

• Translate your website into the native language.

• Localize the websites you use in other countries.

• Follow simple marketing concepts: Who is your audience? What do you want them to think, feel and do? What are you selling and why should they buy? How will the website service them? What problems are you solving and why is your solution better?

What media does your audience like? Do they prefer ads on websites, cellphones or Facebook pages? Do they use coupons, and if so, do they prefer paper or digital ones?

Marketing is about style. A word-for-word translation won’t help get your point across nor make people want your product or service. And in a place such as Russia, where claims are often treated with skepticism, you’ll have to justify your sales argument to a much greater extent than you would in the United States.

• You’ll need keywords on your site. For example, if you’re selling almonds on a U.S. website, your Russian site also should mention almonds.

If you’re involved in social media in the United States, such as a Facebook page about almonds, then you’ll need to get involved in Russian almond chat rooms as well. Your profiles in these social media platforms have to display your firm as Russian almond authorities.

If video is required — for example, in Russia — it’s a good idea to shoot some Russian video, in Russian, with Russian talent appearing in it. An American video with subtitles shows little or no investment in the Russian market.

In the world of search engine optimization, it’s said that “links are reputation.” The American advertising expression is “repetition is reputation.” Before trying to get to top of Baidu or Yandex, find out what makes a reputation in those markets.

Bill Decker, managing director of Partners International, which consults with firms on global business and creates partnerships in foreign countries, can be reached at Bill@partnersinternational.com.